Saturday, July 23, 2016

THE FADE OUT, 2016 Eisner Winner, Best Limited Series!

We wrote yesterday that we hoped this would happen, and it did, at least for the work if not its creators. We believe Bleeding Cool announced the winners first, and the official site confirmed it: The Fade Out has won the 2016 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series!

Our hearty congratulations go out to Ed, Sean, and Bettie, and we remind readers that the book's Deluxe Edition is scheduled for October 12th.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

THE FADE OUT Deluxe Edition, Due October 12th.

In Image's August solicitations, which was released at the end of last month, we find an advance solicitation for the latest -- and much-anticipated -- deluxe edition from Brubaker and Phillips, a single-volume collection of The Fade Out.

The most ambitious project yet from the award-winning team of ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, with acclaimed color artist ELIZABETH BREITWEISER—finally available in the gorgeous deluxe edition their fans have come to expect! A picture-perfect recreation of a lost era, THE FADE OUT is an instant classic from one of comics most acclaimed teams.

Collects THE FADE OUT #1-12

(It has been overshadowed by the news surrounding Velvet and especially Kill Or Be Killed, we didn't see any mentions on Twitter or in Brubaker's newsletter, and our own personal lives have been quite busy with only three blog posts in June or July, but we still can't believe we overlooked this.)

The cover art originally appeared in the oversized movie-magazine variant for issue #1, and here it appears without the effects that seemed to age and weather the cover. And, it appears this deluxe edition has at least thirty extra pages of content, at least going by Amazon's page counts for the three trade paperback collections.

Of all of Brubaker and Phillips' collaborations, my favorite remains Criminal, with Sleeper a very close second, but with every reread -- and especially with my lengthy look back at the series -- my esteem has continued to rise for this sprawling noir novel and its look at the corruption behind Hollywood's postwar Golden Age.

I'm quite looking forward to this release and to rereading this series, all in a single volume that best serves the story and in the deluxe format the story deserves.

...and we hope that our discovering this solicit today might be an omen for the Eisner Awards tomorrow night: The Fade Out has been nominated for Best Limited Series, with Brubaker and Breitweiser getting nods for their respective work writing and coloring.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Bullets: Velvet #15 Out Now, Advance Reviews of KOBK, and More!

We have a long post that could have been made even longer, but we'll start with a couple big items, as one big story reaches a momentary conclusion and another one looms larger on the horizon.

• Velvet #15, In Stores Today, with a Preview Online. We recently covered the news that Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, and Bettie Breitweiser's espionage period piece was going on a hiatus following this new issue and its "grand finale of the first big Velvet story." The new issue hit stores today, following a three-page preview that Comic Book Resources published yesterday, and we can confirm that Brubaker doesn't reveal many additional details in the back pages, beyond plans "to return to Velvet, hopefully soon and often."

(Okay, there's also a hint of what we might see in the future, a reveal that might be considered a bit of spoiler in light of the preview.)

At the beginning of the month, ComicList's extended preview for Image Comics included a product change for the issue.

VELVET #15 will now run 40 pages at a price of $3.99, not 32 pages at a price of $3.50.

We can confirm both the slightly higher price and the extra-sized issue; we notice that finales tend to run long with Brubaker stories, but we're not complaining in the least.

• Advance Reviews and Previews for Kill Or Be Killed. In the back pages of Velvet, we find an extended preview of Kill Or Be Killed #1, the upcoming crime comic from Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Breitweiser. It's the same six-page preview that we mentioned earlier. These first few pages of the debut issue were first released in Image+ #2 and then expanded upon with in-progress art in Brubaker's first email newsletter, and it has since made it to other publications.

Two weeks back, it was announced on Twitter that the preview was included in the new issue of The Walking Dead, and we see that it's in issue #156, upside-down in the back -- tête-bêche, a format popularized by the Ace Doubles books introduced in the 1950's -- which allows Phillips' cover art to serve as a proper cover to the preview. Long-time readers may remember that, despite being published through the Icon imprint of Image competitor Marvel, Criminal was featured in TWD ten years ago next month, with the five-page "trailer" for its first arc "Coward" being included in issue #30, and four years ago this month, Sean Phillips created a variant cover for the series' milestone 100th issue.

From Sean Phillips, we also learned that the book is featured in a five-page article of the latest issue of British comics magazine Comic Heroes. The issue, released in early July, features Harley Quinn and Man-Bat on the cover, and the article evidently includes an interview with both Brubaker and Phillips.

In a spoiler-free review, Nerdist raves that issue #1 "is so much darker and more twisted than anybody guessed. It’s also freaking glorious and an awesome first issue of a promising new series." Elsewhere, Comic Bastards gives the book a 5 out of 5, describing the issue's narrative structure but still avoiding much more detail, particularly for readers of Brubaker's newsletter.

The book should be hitting stores in just a couple weeks, on August 3rd, and ComicList's latest extended forecast for Image relays that the issue "will now run 48 pages, not 40 pages, with no change in price."

• Solicitations, with Preview Art in the Latest Newsletter. The latest issue of Ed Brubaker's email newsletter came out Sunday, and as before the issue is archived online, and readers should DEFINITELY subscribe to stay up-to-date. In addition to fielding reader questions, Brubaker provides a ton of rare artwork:

a Fatale giclée that was available at the 2014 TCAF, where both Brubaker and Phillips made an appearance

several behind-the-scenes drafts of the cover art for Fatale #9

a "non-spoilery tease" for KOBK #2, black-and-white in-progress artwork for a single page, with text

the cover art for KOBK #3, along with an earlier sketch

We're reprinting the final cover art below, and it appears to have been omitted from the October solicitations that were released on Monday.

#3: As our hero is drawn deeper into the shadows, his secret vigilante life begins to put everything he cares about in danger.

As with the first issue, these next two issues are solicited at $3.99 for 40 pages.

Fundraising and Tributes. Finally, a couple brief notes, much more abbreviated than any one of these items deserve.

Ed Brubaker was announced among the first wave of the 2017 JoCo Cruise, a weeklong excursion down Baja California in early March, and it appears that the cruise continues its partnership with the Worldbuilders charity, where booklovers work together to help worthy causes.

Sean's wife Jeanette Phillips has set up a JustGiving page for Epilepsy Research UK. The 5K run/walk took place this past weekend, and she has already exceeded her goal, but people can still donate online.

Almost Darwyn Cooke's Blog has highlighted a tribute panel for the late, great creator at this year's San Diego Comic-Con International. The one-hour event will start this Saturday evening, moderated by Jimmy Palmiotti and including Mike Allred, Scott Dunbier, Cully Hamner, Frank Tieri, and Bruce Timm.